


A Flick of This and a Cast of That

by shopfront



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cooking Lessons, Gen, Post-Canon, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 13:51:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18121820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: After the war ends, life gets back to normal. But Luna hasn't found a good time to learn how to cook.





	A Flick of This and a Cast of That

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mechanonymouse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mechanonymouse/gifts).



“Oh, thank you, Percy,” Molly said as Percy appeared beside her with a bag full of with groceries. She smacked an absentminded kiss on his cheek while keeping an eye on the stove, already waving him past her and out of the kitchen again. “Just in time, too. That’s very helpful. Make sure you take a biscuit or two before you go, while they’re still warm from the oven.”

Distantly she registered Ron’s outraged squark as Percy left with his biscuit - “Why does _he_ get a biscuit!” - and spotted a creeping hand out of the corner of her eye. But she simply rapped it on the knuckles with her rolling pin and turned back to the stove with a sigh.

Approaching a decade out of Hogwarts and still they were lurking for treats like first years.

“I’m not putting another batch in before dinner just because none of you can control yourselves. Harry dear, I’m nearly ready to start the sauce. Could you pop the milk and butter over on the counter for me? And help yourself to a biscuit while you’re at it.”

Already back to swishing and rolling before she’d finished speaking, it took a moment for her to register the silence behind her.

“Everything alright back there?” she asked as she glanced over her shoulder at them.

What she found made her pause. Quickly she flicked her wand to turn down the heat and place her pots under a keep warm charm so they wouldn’t bubble over. Harry and Ron were engaged in an exaggerated pantomime of a conversation on the other side of the kitchen, oblivious to her scrutiny, and Hermione was rolling her eyes between them as she tried to tug the grocery bag out of Harry’s fingers.

Behind all of them stood Luna. She was twirling a lock of her hair between her fingers as she examined the kitchen window frame with a singular focus that Molly… still wasn’t ever quite sure what to do with, if she was honest with herself.

“Sorry, Mum,” Ron said as he pulled a face and waved a hand above his head, bringing Molly’s attention back to them quickly. “Harry doesn’t think there’s any-”

“Harry’s right,” Hermione interrupted him. “There’s no proper milk for cooking, Percy’s forgotten it.”

Molly blinked at them, and then back at her stove. “There’s no-,” she started. Then she cut herself off with an impatient noise to hurry over to Hermione’s side and sort through the bag’s contents for the third time. “But Arthur specifically promised he’d ask Percy before they left the-”

“Um, sorry, but I saw more milk under the cooling charm in the garden,” Harry interrupted with wide eyes, his voice lilting into a question at the last moment like he wasn’t sure. “I could go grab it…?”

“It’s not the right sort,” Molly said with a huff, though she took a second to pat him on the shoulder and smile at him. Heaving a sigh, she glanced at stove and tapped her chin thoughtfully. “And now there’s not enough time to fetch more. Oh well, no matter. I’ll just have to make a few adjustments….”

“There’s plenty of butter in here. You could use the extra to lure the Nisse to your garden,” Luna said cheerfully. Her voice was bright as she leant around Molly to peer into the bag too, speaking straight over the top of Harry’s quietly confused questions to Ron and Hermione about different sorts of milk. “Perhaps they wouldn’t mind finding you a cow to milk.”

Hermione snorted and crossed her arms. “Nisse are a Muggle folktale.”

But Luna just smiled. “Yes,” she replied agreeably. “I believe it’s a useful misconception spread by traditional Wizarding farming families to ensure they keep the Nisse’s goodwill and labour for themselves. It should still be quite easy to lure the Nisse here to visit you though, given how much their distant cousins the Gnomes like it in your garden.”

“I _told_ Ginny to help her father again with the de-gnoming,” Molly muttered half to herself as she made one last desperate dig through the bag before giving up.

“They aren’t- There’s no such-,” Hermione said, spluttering for a moment before narrowing her eyes.

Luna’s smile just widened slightly. “Oh, but there is. They make excellent workers for magical farms. I’m sure many witches and wizards couldn’t get by without them.”

Hermione’s mouth opened and shut silently for a moment, before she turned sharply on her heel. “I’m just going to Floo to Diagon very quickly before dinner,” she called back.

“Do you think we should go with her?” Harry asked Ron under his breath, his words punctuated by the whoosh of the fireplace. The distant noise of the rest of the Weasley’s out in the garden filtered through the window as Ron stared at him incredulously.

“To Flourish and Blotts? At this time of day?” Ron asked indignantly. “I don’t think so. The brightest witch of her age should be able to find her way there and back again just fine, thanks, mate.”

Molly raised her eyebrows and watched as Harry nodded slowly. Darting a glance at Luna, Molly found her smiling serenely at each of them in turn.

After another long moment Harry fidgeted. “Yeah,” he said, the words suddenly bursting out of him a rush. “But if she can’t find any books about those whats-its, she won’t be back in time.”

“The Nisse,” Luna said helpfully, and Harry smiled and distractedly thanked her.

“Oh, bloody hell,” Ron groaned, and Harry appeared to take that for permission. Grabbing him by the elbow, Harry tugged Ron towards the door. “This is going to be like S.P.E.W. all over again, isn’t it?”

Fighting back a chuckle, it took Molly a minute to think about where they were heading.

“Ronald Weasley, buy some-,” Molly started to call after them. But they were gone too quickly, and she threw her hands up as the second whoosh of the Floo drifted back through the house. There really _wasn’t_ time to do the sauce how she’d planned, anyway.

Picking up a tea towel and tossing it over her shoulder, she sighed again and reached for a wooden spoon lying abandoned on the kitchen table before turning back to the stove. Her pots all sat, still paused mid-boil and waiting to be spelled back to life.

“Could I help?” Luna asked. Molly tried to cover her small jump - it had been a long day, it was perfectly understandable if she was easily startled - by looking curious.

“With what, dear?”

“Well, I don’t know how to make a sauce without milk. But I’d like to learn.”

*

A few days later, when the house wasn’t full of people and the Sunday roast wasn’t in danger of burning, Molly stood in her kitchen once more. Her pots and pans bubbled away around them as she guided Luna’s hand through a wand movement.

“That’s it, dear,” she said as she stepped back and let Luna run through the motion again on her own. “Now say the incantation, and don’t forget to keep your wrist straight and stiff. My joints don’t bend quite so readily anymore, but I’ve found it’s only improved the texture of this particular sauce so you might as well learn it that way from the start.”

Luna nodded seriously as she followed Molly’s instructions, laughing with delight as sauce began to stream from the end of her wand. “It worked,” she cried, releasing her wand when it tugged away from her and floated over the pot on its own to continue working. “I didn’t think it would, it didn’t work for me yesterday.”

“Yes, well. Arthur finally remembered to stop in Diagon for some proper milk,” Molly said.

Her tone sounded long suffering, even to her own ears, though she couldn’t stop herself smiling at the memory of Arthur and Percy’s profuse apologies. Then she glanced over and noticed Luna’s raised eyebrows and benignly confused expression and straightened her apron. But despite her earlier excitement, Luna stood calmly as she waited for more information and the return of Molly’s attention.

“It was the milk that ruined your attempt yesterday, dear. It wasn’t drawn by magical hands from cows fed on horklumps so that the milk can convey cooking spells a little more readily,” Molly said as began to bustle again, gathering the ingredients for the next spell Luna had wanted to learn. “Normally we buy Muggle, of course. Much cheaper, and with a little practise you’ll be able to make do just as well without magical milk anyway. But when someone is still learning, the right ingredient can help their magic stretch further.”

“Oh, I see. That must be a very big help on days like Sunday,” Luna said, nodding to herself as she returned to watching her sauce. Her wand twisted in the air under her gaze as if it was pleased by the attention. It turned the stream of liquid into something more delicate that arced through the air, and Luna clapped her hands in response.

“Yes, well, it is when somebody remembers to pick up the right ingredients. Normally I don’t bother with it, but Ginny wanted her cake on Sunday instead of on her birthday and one thing led to another… oh, and now look, there’s enough in the pot for this dish so you just need to reverse your hand movement to cancel the spell,” Molly said, and beamed when Luna deftly reversed it. “Yes, just like that, that’s very good. You have been practising! Always keep an eye on the pot when you can. Unless you only have the exact amount of the ingredients in the kitchen that the spell needs it will simply continue making sauce until it spills over or you run out of something, whichever happens first.”

“Sounds like fun,” Luna replied brightly while Molly reached for another pot.

“No spills in my kitchen,” Molly said archly, but still with a smile. Then she reached for Luna’s wrist again with her other hand, enjoying the moment. Going back to basics was proving more pleasurable than she'd expected. “Now, the wand movement is similar for the glaze we’ll be using on the ham. There’s just a small change for meat dishes and a different incantation. Here, wave your wand just like this."


End file.
